"That makes sense," Alasea said. "Still, I hope he didn't do anything lasting to them."

R.D.'s face darkened, and he looked away, off to the side.

It was darker when Jotaro came back with little cartons of food in a bag. Matt and Hugo joined them inside Alasea's room, and they all passed out the cartons.

Matt peered inside his carton, squinting. "What's this?"

"Tempura," Jotaro said.

"That's helpful. What's in it?"

Jotaro's eyes narrowed. "Shrimp."

"I'm gonna get something from the cafeteria," Matt said, closing his carton. "Who wants this?" He watched as Helena's hand shot in the air. "Huh. Big shock."

"Still picky, huh?" Alasea said quietly, watching as Matt left.

"Yep," R.D. muttered, shaking his head. "You should've seen him after we beat Diablo. He was determined to find American food."

Alasea stared. "In Japan?"

Jotaro slid some noodles into his mouth and quickly swallowed. "They have American food here. And Mom's from America, so sometimes she'll make things like hamburgers."

"It wouldn't kill him to eat some different food once in a while," Hugo said.

Helena didn't seem picky, though. She was too busy shoveling down shrimp and broccoli with one of the plastic forks Jotaro had brought.

"Its harder to find restaurants in our world," Alasea mentioned. "Most of the cities are abandoned and destroyed."

"He managed to find one, somehow. And then the Ing found us, so that went to hell," R.D. said, trailing off.

"Ing?" Jotaro asked.

"Long, boring story," Hugo said.

"Hmmmm." Jotaro popped in a curly piece of meat and chewed slowly.

"Helena, breathe," R.D. warned, looking torn between amusement and exasperation at the speed in which Helena was eating.

She stopped just as she was pulling up a heap of noodles, bundled together all around her fork. "...I've got a high metabolism," she said to Jotaro.

"We've noticed," Alasea said wryly, grinning.

After dinner, they settled down to rest. Matt informed the nurses they were staying overnight, so they were set up in guest rooms. Naturally, they planned to rotate guard so they could keep an eye on the rooms, which were fairly close to each other.

Fortunately, the night passed without incident, and sunlight soon broke through the blinds of the guest room. Jotaro and Matt were still out standing guard.

"You two are still up?" R.D. asked, coming out of his room as he pulled his second, black t-shirt down over his body.

"I would've gotten up at five anyway," Matt said. "Anyway, get everyone else up. We need to go stock up on supplies before we move on."

"Not going to happen until Alasea wakes up," R.D. said, gesturing behind him. "You know she's still knocked out from the surgery."

Matt's eyes narrowed. "Get everyone up who ISN'T critically injured, then."

R.D. rolled his eyes as he turned to wake up the other three. "Alright, alright."

Hugo was ready to go, as usual. He watched R.D. shake Helena, who has slept on her back, splayed the wrong way like a big, awkward cat.

"Mmmmmm." She opened her eyes, stretched a bit with her arms flaring out. "Time to go already?"

"Not yet," R.D. shook his head. "Matt just wants everyone up so we can leave the moment we're ready."

Helena sat up with a curl of her spine, pulling her shirt back down - one side had hitched up her body during the night. She reached over to the thin sheets covering her bare feet and pulled them away.

Then quickly threw them back. "You and Hugo go ahead," she said. "I'll be out in a minute."

"Alright. Wake up Ileyna when you're done."

"What changed now?" Hugo asked, hanging around by the door.

Helena glanced over the bed at the Mettaur. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid. You're hiding those changes from us. It's your feet, isn't it?"

"Hugo!" Helena said. "Keep it down!"

"Why?" the Mettaur said. "It's not like we don't know about that already. There's no reason to hide it."

"...but I'm not comfortable with it," Helena said. She pulled her heels closer, and threw off the sheets. Over the night, her toes had warped into those familiar claws she sported in her full dragon mode. "I don't know if I can deal with it. Being half-human, that is."

"What are you two talking about?" Ileyna muttered as she roused, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with one arm.

"It's nothing," Helena said, throwing the covers back over her toes. "Listem, Ileyna, Matt wants everyone to be ready to go, so get cleaned up and have some breakfast, okay?"

"Mmn." The girl slipped out of bed and plodded over to the duffel bag with her dress in it. After a minute of rifling through it, she pulled out her clothing and made her way back to the bed.

Partway there, she stopped and looked over at Helena. "When did your feet change?" she asked, still looking a bit sleepy.

Helena flushed red. "...just get changed, Ileyna."

Ileyna just nodded after a bit and got changed from her too-long t-shirt to her dress and bolero.

After Ileyna got dressed, she, R.D., and Hugo went out to meet Matt and Jotaro. Jotaro was pressed against his chair, chin tipped at his collarbone, brim of hat drawn down. Matt wasn't sure if he was sleeping or waiting.

"All right," Matt said. "First we need to see if Alasea can patch herself up any more, or if we have anything in our med kit that can hurry it along. Next, we need to hit the city and restock. Jotaro's agreed to help us pay for it, since this place doesn't take the cash we have." Matt gestured at Jotaro, who didn't flinch.

"It'd probably be best if she healed up after we leave," R.D. said as Ileyna stepped out of the room, her small duffel bag held in her hand. "They know we plan on taking her out of here today so they'll probably check her wound. And if they find it miraculously healed, we'll never get out of here. It'd gather too many curious eyes and the last thing we need is more attention on us."

"Good point," Matt said. "Hey, where's Helena? She up yet?"

"She's still getting dressed," Hugo said. "She'll be out in a bit."

"It's gotta be fast, we've got places to be."

"We know, Matt," R.D. said. "Complaining about it won't get us there any faster."

"But it's paid off so well before!" Matt gibed.

In a stroke of convienence, Helena rounded the corner into the hallway they were standing in. Her hair was neatly combed, flowing behind the airy white dress and shoes she wore. Her shoulders and upper arms were covered by a pale dress shirt, contrasting her clean, healthy skin.

Matt took it all in. He wouldn't lie...she looked damn good today.

"Hi," she said when she got close. "Did I miss anything?"